Tevin Farmer vs. Guillaume Frenois on July 27 on Hooker-Ramirez card on DAZN

By Tim Royner

Boxingnews24.com

Tevin Farmer will be defending his IBF super featherweight title against Guillaume Frenois on the undercard of Maurice Hooker vs. Jose Carlos Ramirez on July 27 on DAZN at College Park Center, in Arlington, Texas.

Farmer vs. Frenois not a great fight

The 35-year-old Frenois (46-1-1, 12 KOs) has a flashy record that looks impressive at first glance, but it’s filled with no name opponents. Frenois, who comes from France, is a 13-year pro. He’s fought mostly in his home country of France against lesser opposition.

Frenois has stepped it up a level against decent opposition twice in his career, losing to Devis Boschiero by a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision in September 2013, and then fighting to a 12 round draw against Jono Carrolllast December in Sheffield, England. This is the same Carroll that Farmer recently beat by a 12 round unanimous decision last March.

Farmer (29-4-1, 6 KOs) is still fighting on undercards for Matchroom Boxing USA unfortunately for him. It’s not surprising though, because this isn’t the type of opponent for him to be in a main event. Farmer’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom hasn’t made him a headliner attraction yet. It’s unclear what he’s waiting for. It obviously hurts Farmer’s chances of fighting in main events when he’s matched against guys like Frenois, who isn’t well known in the U.S, James Tennyson, Jono Carroll and Billy Dib.

Hearn needs to match Farmer against better opposition in order for him to become a headline act. Hearn could easily put together a unification fight between Farmer and WBC 130-pound champion Miguel Berchelt if he wanted to, but Tevin would likely lose badly. So instead of Hearn putting Farmer in fights that would potentially increase his popularity, he’s putting him in against beatable fighters with arguably inflated records and rankings.

It’s not a knock on Frenois, but does he rate the #3 ranking that he’s been given by the International Boxing Federation at super featherweight? Based the quality of opposition on Frenois’ resume, you would have to say no.

Here are Frenois’ last 10 wins:

– Jono Carroll (16-1-1)

– Michal Dufek (25-21-2)

– Ivan Ruiz Morote (19-9-1)

– Ruddy Encarnacion (39-28-4)

– Vyacheslav Gusev (25-6)

– Samir Ziani (30-3-1)

– Giorgi Kulumbegashvili (5-9)

– Miguel Alberto Gonzales Mena (16-12)

– Alix Djavoiev (4-38)

– Dame Seck (11-22-2)

– Alika Vakhtangashvili (10-14-1)

Those sure are some good records, aren’t they? Looking at those records, it’s unclear what the IBF sees in Frenois to have him #3 in their rankings. With the type of opponents that Frenois has fought, he should be at the bottom of the IBF’s top 15 in this writer’s opinion.

Hearn wants Tevin Farmer vs. Gervonta Davis

The fight that Matchroom Boxing USA promoter Eddie Hearn is interested in making is a unification contest between Farmer and WBA Super World super featherweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis. Hearn has scheduled Farmer to face Frenois on the same day, July 27th, that Gervonta Davis (21-0, 20 KOs) will be defending his WBA title against mandatory Ricardo “Cientifíco” Núñezin his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. Is an accident that Hearn has scheduled Farmer to fight on the same day as Tank Davis? It’s doubtful.

Hearn is trying to slowly build interest for an eventual unification fight between Davis and Farmer. Hearn is even matching Farmer against Davis’ past opponents like Francisco Fonseca, who Tevin beat by a 12 round unanimous decision last December. In contrast, Davis destroyed Fonseca by an eighth round knockout in August 2017. There’s obviously a bit of a difference in talent between Davis and Farmer. Davis, 24, is looking like a superstar in the making. Farmer, 28, is just a good basic champion, and he likely won’t hold onto his title too much longer.

Murat Gassiev to face Joey Dawejko at heavyweight on Hooker-Ramirez card

Besides the Farmer vs. Frenois fight taking part on the Hooker-Ramirez card, Murat Gassiev is expected to face Joey Dawejko on the undercard. Former IBF/WBA cruiserweight champion Gassiev will be making his heavyweight debut against the big punching Dawejko.

Rumor mill: Dawejko dropped Joshua

There are rumors that Dawejko dropped former IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua last week before his fateful seventh round knockout loss to Andy Ruiz Jr. at Madison Square Garden in New York. There are also rumors that Joshua was badly hurt by Dawejko in that sparring session. According to Mike Coppinger, there’s a rumor that Dawejko was told not to talk about the sparring between him and Joshua.

“The rumor is that he was told not to post video or say anything, as he shouldn’t since sparring is confidential,” said Coppinger on his social media site about the rumor of Joshua being dropped by Dawejko.

Dawejko ends up on an Eddie Hearn card following rumors of him knocking Joshua down and being told to keep quiet about it. It’s interesting stuff, isn’t it? If Dawejko winds up destroying Gassiev, it would be another shocker. Hearn just signed the 25-year-old Gassiev to his Matchroom Boxing stable, and he has high hopes for him. On paper, Dawejko shouldn’t be able to beat a two-time former cruiserweight champion. But who would have ever expected Dawejko to drop Joshua in sparring. As former middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin likes to say, “This is boxing.” With a fighter power like Dawejko, anything is possible.